After studying the report in its capacity as employer, the Commission decided on 28 June to open disciplinary proceedings against three officials, and informed four of its local agents in Stockholm that it was considering dismissing them on the grounds of professional misconduct.

After studying the report in its capacity as employer, the Commission decided on 28 June to open disciplinary proceedings against three officials, and informed four of its local agents in Stockholm that it was considering dismissing them on the grounds of professional misconduct.

The documents were transferred to the courts, disciplinary procedures were undertaken and access to documents and buildings of the Commission granted to the examining magistrate, and reimbursement of EU funds demanded and the immunity of a former member of the Commission lifted.

Consideration of these specific cases of responsibility could lead to a more general consideration of the procedures and provisions governing European officials' criminal and administrative liability (powers to bring disciplinary proceedings; cases for and methods of bringing proceedings involving pecuniary liability; cases and procedures for the communication of potentially criminal acts to national authorities and for the withdrawal of various types of immunity in relation to: opening criminal proceedings, access to premises, the requirement for officials to maintain confidentiality, etc.), with a view to establishing the responsibil ...[+++]ities of officials occupying senior management posts.

These elements include the prohibition of the use of both bargaining unit and non-bargaining unit employees or any person including those persons who exercise managerial functions; the prohibition of the use of persons engaged, transferred or hired after the earlier of the date on which the notice of desire to bargain is given and the date on which bargaining begins; the prohibition of contracting work in or out of the establishment; the providing of protection from discipline for any person who honours the picket line; and the development of an enforcement mechanism that would include permission for the union to enter and inspect th ...[+++]e employer's premises in the company of a government labour relations officer and representative of the employer.

The SAGIT report recommended the new cultural instrument on cultural diversity should: recognize the importance of cultural diversity; acknowledge that cultural goods and services are basically different from other products; acknowledge that domestic measures and policies intended to ensure access to a variety of indigenous cultural products are significantly different from other policy measures; set out rules on the kinds of domestic regulatory and other measures that countries cannot use to enhance cultural and linguistic diversity and; and establish how trade disciplines would apply or not apply to cultural measures that meet the ...[+++]agreed upon rules.